In the autumn of 2011, we anticipated a slow down in price growth in prime central London for 2012, and the spring Budget provided the catalyst for this. Annual price growth in 2012 was at its lowest level since the beginning of the recovery in 2009.

The prime London market faces a number of short-term challenges which are likely to result in a period of static prices for the next year or so, particularly as the market absorbs the impact of increased taxation.

However, by mid-2014, we expect a return to strong growth as the fundamentals of demand are restored, resulting in a five year growth figure to the end of 2017 of 25.6% for prime central London and 22.1% for outer prime London.